Hu Architecture Professor Steps Onto National Platform

HAMPTON — Frequently, when friends came over to ask him to play, Bradford Grant turned down the invitations.

His father, a builder, was adding another room or making one more renovation to their home. Grant and his older brother provided the helping hands.

The constant redesigning of their home in California was part of his father's interest in creating new spaces.

"That spurred my own interest," said Grant, who now heads Hampton University's architecture department, one of the oldest at a historically black college. "But I didn't particularly like the physical work. I wanted to be the one designing, telling others what to build."

In college, Grant turned to architecture. But he also knew that he would enjoy teaching. So he also earned a master's degree, a credential to teach architecture as a university professor.

"I wanted to do both -- practice and also help students," he said.

Grant has done that for more than 20 years.

In that time, he's also become a national voice in architecture education through the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, the primary organization for architectural faculty and research programs for North American colleges and universities.

The association recently elected Grant its president for 2002. He's the first professor from a historically black university -- and the first black -- to lead the 89-year-old organization. Grant is the group's incumbent vice president and former regional director.

ACSA has 123 member schools of architecture, including those at Yale, Berkeley, Tuskegee and McGill. "It's a great honor," Grant said. "What is really nice is that I was elected. There's very few ACSA members who are African American. So I was elected by a predominantly white membership."

For the last seven years, Grant, 48, has led efforts to include more minorities in the field of architecture. "One of my big issues is that of diversity in architecture education and the architecture profession," he said. "I would like to help in that effort, as well as with other underrepresented minorities."

Through his research, Grant found that of the 120,000 estimated registered architects in the country, only about 1 percent are black.

Changing that is a long-term process. But he knows firsthand that it starts in the formative years. Besides his father's projects at home, Grant said, a middle school wood- shop teacher made a difference.

"He was my first black teacher," Grant remembers. "He mentored me and motivated me to stay in architecture. He saw I had an interest and an aptitude. I think that really was the key."

Increasing the diversity and number of role models is critical in sparking a student's interest. Without the role models, there are no students and consequently no architects or architecture professors, Grant said.

But, he said, there are other, more complex issues, like racism, that get in the way.

"In architecture, you're working with most people's greatest investment, like a home," Grant said. "You look around for someone you feel comfortable with. For many, it's not going to be an African-American. The same is true in corporate America."

In his years of practice, Grant's focus as an architect and recently as a consultant has been on community design, which includes buildings like churches, schools and community centers.

"I like buildings that reach and work with the larger public," Grant said. "I find them instrumental in helping regenerate communities."

In turn, his experience as a professional helps Grant keep his students up-to-date with the real world.

Since he came to HU five years ago, Grant founded HU's Urban Institute, the architecture department's service-learning program. Through the institute, HU students have helped many nonprofit groups in Hampton Roads with their design needs. In turn, students get hands-on experience.

The group's most recent project involves helping a Hampton neighborhood with ideas on how to revitalize the intersection of Kecoughtan Road and LaSalle Avenue.

Grant, an endowed professor of architecture, has been on HU's list of "rising stars," HU Provost JoAnn Haysbert aid.

"It's a credit to the institution and also to him that he has been acknowledged," Haysbert said. "Since he's come, he has presented himself as very knowledgeable and very passionate about preparing students."

Miriam Stawowy can be reached at 247-7854 or by e-mail at mstawowy@dailypress.com